In many web based applications, it may be necessary to verify that a human is using a computer, rather than an automated computer program, as one example. One well known solution for use with web based forms, is to use an application such as CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart). A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test presented on screen to determine if the user is a human. A problem with using CAPTCHAs is that they can be automatically solved by computer algorithms. Further, humans can be used to solve CAPTCHAs the first time, with the response being recorded with the original challenge so if the same challenge is reused later a computer program can respond without assistance from a human. CAPTCHAs can be annoying to users and can typically only be used at predetermined locations within an application (e.g. a web form during user logon).
An alternative solution, often used in video games is to insert random events. Random events interrupt some otherwise predictable order of events by presenting new activities to the player/user. These are usually used to discourage players from using automated means to artificially gain experience within a gaming environment. Random events are annoying to users/players unless well crafted within the web page/game. Random events do not occur at predetermined locations but may require ongoing background analysis to estimate when a user/player may be using automated means of control.
An alternative system and method for determining whether web page interactions are human or non-human is described in the Applicant's co-pending application Ser. No. 12/435,740, the contents of which are herein incorporated by cross reference. In the Applicant's solution, event streams generated at the client device are analyzed by a server, such as the web server or a classification server, in order to determine whether the event streams that have been generated match known human or non-human derived event streams. As event stream processing becomes more and more commonplace, it is inevitable that computer programs will be created that attempt to generate human-like event streams.
What is required is a system, method and computer readable medium for processing user interface events that can be used to thwart attempts by non-human systems to produce human-like event streams.